On June 5, 2015 at 01:14, BMaxey said...
Small jobs are marginally profitable, but you booked this job with the expectation of a few hundred in revenue. But with any service-type client you're hoping for a big sale at some point. Suffice to say, it won't happen here, any future big tickets will come from this connected competitor.
Professional detachment. Easy to say. But if you had not discovered this new work, would you be happy continuing to service this client? Because you can only afford to cherry pick when your days are completely filled - and you're faced with retiring certain clients in favor of higher revenue.
I'm dealing with a similar issue on a larger scale. Major client, we dedicated a crew to spend most of 2004 renovating a 25k sf home (we charged hourly). The following year we installed $500K of gear, and continued to add over the years.
All's well until he decided to expand the home by another 13k sf and brought in a new architect. Who convinced the owner to use his guys.
Fast forward two years, client has a newly installed Crestron system in the addition that doesn't talk to the Crestron we installed. Mind you this is not a separate house, it's the new east wing. And we're being asked to extend our phone sys to the new area (which is woefully under wired). And... we continue to maintain the original portion of the home.
I'm pissed. But I've tried to take the high road. Client pays every invoice on time. I ask, how big is my ego?
I would just keep on doing my thing for that client.
We did a Crestron system for a client who had a homebuilder who brought in all his usual subs, except his CI. Somehow his CI and the lady of the house got off on the wrong foot, odd since she turned out to be a really nice, easygoing person, but whatever. Over the strong objections of the builder, we got the contract.
It wound up being easily the most hostile, crappy jobsite I have ever worked on. The builder tossed us under the bus at every opportunity, he and his subs were uncooperative and at times downright nasty. Their attitude was that we screwed their buddy over by getting the contract. Lots of things wound up taking a lot longer then they needed to and there was a lot of petty, stupid, childish issues (like not being allowed to use the site dumpster)
In the end we got the job done, client was happy with the finished project and we made some money but being where you are not wanted every day is unpleasant.
Consider it a good thing you weren't potentially in that environment.
